Little and Large.
No not the legendary comedy double act. Strangely though they did appear in a recent sermon of mine.
Not in person though sadly.
It is an ongoing discussion and debate about the strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons, balance between and relationship of large scale evangelistic events and personal evangelism. It seems too often we get caught up focusing on one over the other: either churches are event focused or people focused when it comes to trying to engage people who don’t come to church.
Which way do you / does your church lean? Or is it a no contest in favour of one way?
As Robin Gamble says in his book Jesus the evangelist (recommended), Jesus had an eye for the crowd but a listening ear for the individual. He was involved in the large scale evangelistic event e.g. feeding 5,000 + hungry people and in personal conversations e.g. in the dark with Nicodemus who saw the light.
So as He sets us an example to follow (John 13 v 15), we should do the same.
We should not put all our energy into events without also equipping people to share faith with people they meet not just at those events but in daily life. Many people would not consider coming to an event for all sorts of reasons – how else will they hear if we don’t tell them (Romans 10 v 14)?
We should not leave people to feel sharing faith is all up to them as individuals – some people feel more comfortable being with other people whether that is in sharing faith or hearing about faith. Events can be a focus, a catalyst, an encouragement. Reaching the unreachables whether that is people or places can be better together. There were reasons why Paul worked in a team (Acts 17 v 13 – 15).
So it is great to hear of evangelist J.John’s mission at Arsenal’s stadium on 8th July 2017 and not just because it is Arsenal (www.justoneemirates.com). The plan is for 25,000 Christians to be there – and to each bring 1 friend. He hopes it will be a platform for more personal conversations with people who are not Christians.
Little and Large.
Let’s do the same.
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